Gov. employee accused of sexual harassment; resigns from position

Thu, 11/30/2017 - 1:23pm

ELIZABETH WEST

Allegations of sexual harassment have been made against Governor John Bel Edwards’ Deputy Chief of Staff for Programming and Planning, Johnny Anderson.
According to a spokesman for the governor’s office, Anderson resigned from his position on Wednesday, November 22, 2017.
Following the accusations, The Advocate reported that Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Carbo released a statement regarding this situation.
In the statement, Carbo said that the Governor’s Office has a “zero tolerance” policy for sexual harassment.
Carbo continued by stating, “We take these allegations very seriously. Upon commencement of the investigative process, Johnny Anderson resigned from the Governor’s Office. The investigation will continue, and we are unable to comment any further.”
Anderson told the Advocate on Thursday that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and his resignation is not based “even on the thought of guilt.”
According to Anderson, he doesn’t want to “distract from the governor and the work that he needs to be about and this could be a distraction.”
At this time, no further details of the allegations have been released.